I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Republicans Now Control Almost Every State Legislature

(CNSNews.com) – Republicans added to their historic 2014
gains in the nation’s state legislatures with the addition of five state House
chambers and two state Senate chambers in last week’s election, while
Democratic control was reduced to levels not seen since the Civil War.

Republicans are now in control of a record 67 (68 percent) of the 98
partisan state legislative chambers in the nation, more than twice the number
(31) in which Democrats have a majority, according to the bipartisan National
Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). “That’s more than at any other time in
the history of the Republican Party,” according to NCSL. “They also hold more
total seats, well over 4,100 of the 7,383, than they have since 1920.”

Next year, the GOP will control both
legislative chambers in 32 states - an all-time high, according to NCSL - while
Democrats will have total control of just 13 state legislatures. In 24 of the
32 states with Republican-controlled legislatures, voters have also elected
Republican governors. In contrast, Democrats have a “political trifecta” in
just six states.

Since 2009, when President Obama took office, his party has lost a total
of 919 seats in state legislatures nationwide, according to NCSL data. Since
2009, when President Obama took office, his party has lost a total of 919 seats
in state legislatures nationwide, according to NCSL data.

In 2009, Democrats had total control of
27 state legislatures, and held a majority in at least one chamber in eight
more states where power was divided. In contrast, Republicans controlled just
14 state legislatures.

During Obama’s first year in office,
Democrats held 1,024 of the 1,971 total state Senate seats in the nation,
compared to 889 in Republican hands. They also held 3,058 of the total 5,411
state House seats, compared to 2,334 for Republicans. In addition, there were
28 Democratic governors, compared to 22 Republican governors.

However, near the end of Obama’s two terms in office, the partisan
balance in the nation's state legislatures has been completely reversed.

As of Nov. 7, 2016, there are just 823
Democratic state senators out of a total of 1,972 seats nationwide, according
to NCSL data. Meanwile, Republicans have increased their ranks to 1,089. Likewise,
of the 5,411 state House seats, there are now 3,029 Republicans compared to
2,340 Democrats – a mirror image of both parties’ status in 2009. (Source:
National Conference of State Legislatures)

The Democrats’ prior advantage in the
nation’s governors’ mansions when Obama took office has also been lost. There
are currently 31 Republican governors, 18 Democratic governors and one
Independent (Gov. Bill Walker of Alaska). “Republicans grabbed more of
America’s statehouses and governors' mansions during the Obama administration
than at any time in the modern era,” the Washington Post’s Amber Phillips
reported.

Last week’s historic flip of the Kentucky House - the last
Democrat-controlled legislative chamber in the South - to Republican hands for
the first time in nearly 100 years underscores the point. In 2010, Democrats in
the Kentucky House held a solid 65-35 majority.
Six years later, the GOP now has a supermajority, and will control 62 of
the chamber’s 100 seats. “Democrats are now basically extinct in the South,”
Phillips noted.

“Republicans bested expectations,” said
Dan Diorio, a policy expert at NCSL. “Having already reached the peak of control
in party history, Republicans will maintain a similar level of control in a
year when many expected Democrats to net seats and chambers.”

“Anyone who said that Donald Trump was
going to be a drag on down-ticket races is certainly eating their words right
now,” Lisa Nelson, CEO of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) told
CNSNews.com.

“When I talk to the states, most of
them say they picked up state Senate or House seats because of Donald Trump.
And I think that’s because of the forgotten man or woman people are talking
about, who hadn’t shown up to vote in the past.”

Although most of the mainstream media
failed to predict that Trump would win, those following state legislative races
were not surprised by his victory, Nelson added.

“People in the states saw this race tightening easily a week before the
election. In particular, I was talking to somebody in Wisconsin who said they
were going to pick up seats because of Donald Trump on the ticket, and sure
enough they did,” she told CNSNews. “A lot of those voters ‘came home’ in the
last week or two. They were talking, but a lot of the media wasn’t listening.”